Oh, mysterious Traminette, let us count the ways we love you. And how our customers love you. And why you’re one of the most popular wines we produce.

Pardon us if we go on, but at Penns Woods Winery we’re proud to make this unique varietal into award-winning wine. Traminette was born in the 1960s at Cornell University, a cross between Gewurztraminer and Joannes Seyve. Allow us a geek out moment: this late mid-season, cold-hardy white is a winner because it grows well on the East Coast and has good resistance to several fungal diseases—plus it tastes divine.

All this caught the discerning eye (and palate!) of our president and winemaker Gino Razzi. When you pair a good clone with a great winemaker, the rest is delicious history.

Curious about Traminette? Here’s what you’ll experience when you try it at our Tasting Room:

Soak in the beautiful yellowish-straw color. Remember, your wine-drinking experience starts with what you see.

Inhale the sweet smells of honey and lemon zest.

Savor the part off-dry, somewhat sweet wine with hints of citrus and pineapple.

Enjoy the clean, crisp and minerally finish thanks to subtle acidity.

Pro tip: White wine isn’t just for summer sipping! Traminette is one of our whites that drink well throughout the year.

We’re pleased to say we’re not the only ones head over heels with Traminette. Penns Woods is honored to have been awarded a Double Gold Medal at the 2015 International Eastern Wine Competition and a Gold Medal at the 2015 Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.Visit us soon and see why this champ may very well be your new favorite.

Penns Woods Winery is a family-run Pennsylvania winery. With more than 40 years of experience in the wine business, winemaker Gino Razzi and his daughter, Carley Mack, produce award-winning wines from Pennsylvania-grown grapes. Penns Woods wines can be found in restaurants throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs. Stop in to your local state store and pick from a limited selection of wines, or visit our tasting room for the full offering. Thetasting room in Chadds Ford provides an all-around vineyard experience and hosts live music, food and wine pairings and other excitingevents each weekend. Score Penns Woods Winery news in your inbox bysigning up for our newsletter today!

We love to host events at Penns Woods Winery—and at our own homes. Our Italian heritage means we know a little something about being gracious hosts (thank you, Nonna!) and about pairing wine for a dinner party.

We believe that entertaining should be fun for everyone, including the host. Check out our top tips for throwing a killer wine pairing dinner that will impress but not stress:

It’s Important to Offer Choices

We can make tons of wine and food pairing recommendations, but when you’re hosting friends and family, it comes down to what people like to drink. Make sure there’s a variety: red, white and rose, covering dry, semi-sweet and sweet. People will remember what they liked—and that you were the host with the most for having it there for the drinking.

Start with Something Light

Who doesn’t love snacking? Have something ready to nibble on when people arrive. We recommend you choose easy-to-prepare big flavors like cheese and charcuterie boards overflowing with local meats, cheeses, spreads, mustards, conserves, chutneys and crackers. Try dry cured meats and bacons from 1732 Meats, cheeses from The Farm at Doe Run and Roundtop Farm and accompaniments from Taste Artisanal Market and Motley Mustard (we’re particularly fond of their mustards made with our Chardonnay and our Riesling). Add a few bowls of nuts and dried fruits to the table, and you’re ready to roll. Bonus: you’ll have time to mingle because you won’t be running apps from the kitchen.

Since your starters cut across all flavor profiles, offer lighter wines for your guests to sip on as they nosh:

Bancroft Riesling is light-bodied with tastes of honey, floral and citrus with a sweet finish—a contrast to the savory selections.

Sauvignon Blanc is a bit more complex with tangerine peel, passion fruit and bright citrus with a touch of minerality—perfect to cut through the creamy cheeses and hearty meats.

Make Salad Sensational

Opposites attract, and we love pairing mustardy arugula or earthy spinach with sweet goat cheese. Make it your own with heirloom cherry tomatoes, a kiss of dried fruit or a sprinkling of chopped nuts. Pair this satisfying salad with Grüner Veltliner, crisp and citrusy with flavors of green apple, lime and white pepper with a burst of acidity to tackle the richness.

Enter the Entrée

You know your friends and family and what main course will result in a home run. We like variety, too, so check out some of our favorite dinners and pairings:

Surprise with a chicken or fish dish in a creamy white sauce.

Think garlic white wine cream, mushroom sauce, Parmesan sauce or lemon butter sauce to wow the palate. They’re simple to make and finish off in the oven, so you’ll have more time to hang with your guests. For these dishes, repurpose your Grüner Veltliner. Move stealthily from the salad course to creamy entrees by pouring more of this worthy companion to rich and dreamy foods.

Choose roast pork tenderloin with plenty of umami.

Rub it with high-quality olive oil and rosemary, garlic, oregano, thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Sear it, then finish it in the oven—we’re all about simple and about being with your guests.

Complement the “other white meat” with Chardonnay Reserve, an unoaked yet toasty wine with bright fruit flavors and a hint of nutmeg on the nose.

Bring on the beef.

Let us count the ways you could prepare steaks, tenderloins, roasts—the sky’s the limit. Naturally we recommend something that lingers in the oven or, in nice weather, something you can throw on the grill while friends and family surround you al fresco.

Be bold with your wine choices:

Cabernet Sauvignon is tried and true and for good reason: it’s robust and full-bodied with notes and flavors of dark fruit.

Pick pizza or pasta.

Guess what? The ultimate wine pairing dinner doesn’t have to mean high-falutin’ picks. Sometimes a simple repast with your nearest and dearest can be the most memorable.

Make pizza yourself in the oven, toss a few naan pizzas on the grill or order from your favorite local shop. We also like pasta in a red sauce for utter simplicity and pure tastes. The tomato base in the red sauce on pizza and pasta is savory and, depending on your preference, a bit spicy.

Our absolute go-to for pizza and pasta is Chambourcin, which is full of pomegranate and sage notes with earthy flavors and just a bit of a black pepper kick.

Crush a dinner party with an Asian flair.

The gloves are off here because the selection is huge, spanning major regional cuisine hubs throughout the continent and into the Middle East. You can choose from blistering spices to cool creams and everything in between. What suits your guests?

You’ll need an all-purpose powerhouse--Traminette, with its sweet smells of honey and lemon that give way to a crisp, refreshing, minerally finish. It’s complex, just like Asian cuisine.

Don’t Forget Dessert

As if forgetting dessert is even a thing! We’re suggesting sweet and savory for a fantastic finish.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.

It doesn’t matter if it’s locally made ice cream, artisan brownies, molten lava cake or the world’s largest selection of craft candies—everyone loves chocolate. You’re certain to hit it out of the park when chocolate is on the menu.

In this case, pair luscious with luscious! Lacrima Dolce is our Merlot-based dessert wine with perfectly balanced tannins and silky flavors of ripe cherry, chocolate and cinnamon. Chocolate has met its match!

Choose a cheese course for rustic panache.

You can still end the meal with a cheese course even if you started with a cheese board, as this is a more simple, totally savory selection. We like The Farm at Doe Run’s St. Malachi, a hard cheese with nutty notes, and its buttery Blow Horn cheese. Toss a few crackers out and you’re done.

Final Tips for the Win

You don’t have to provide a new glass for every wine (but if you can, that’s amazing). Make sure you pour from light to dark. Use cute wine charms and witty glass markers so each guest can keep track of his or her glass.

If someone doesn’t like a wine, it’s OK. Really (and that’s coming from us!). Go ahead and pour the next wine up or more of that person’s favorite.

Always have gluten-free options. There are really decent gluten-free crackers, breads and other staples out there now, so you can feel confident offering them to your food-sensitive friends.

When you send the invitation, ask your guests to alert you of any food sensitivities. Besides gluten, you may discover that dairy is a problem for some. If you’ve been invited to a party and you have food sensitivities, do your hosts a favor and let them know in advance. No one likes that kind of surprise.

Have beer or local cider available in case someone doesn’t enjoy wine (perish the thought!).

​​​​​Salute to your success as the ultimate wine pairing dinner host!

Penns Woods Winery is a family-run Pennsylvania winery. With more than 40 years of experience in the wine business, winemaker Gino Razzi and his daughter, Carley Mack, produce award-winning wines from Pennsylvania-grown grapes. Penns Woods wines can be found in restaurants throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs. Stop in to your local state store and pick from a limited selection of wines, or visit our tasting room for the full offering. The tasting room in Chadds Ford provides an all-around vineyard experience and hosts live music, food and wine pairings and other exciting events each weekend. Score Penns Woods Winery news in your inbox by signing up for our newsletter today!

Thoughts of wine and chocolate conjure up romance and a certain February holiday, but trust us—you don’t need Cupid’s arrow to strike or a special occasion to indulge. Pairing wine and chocolate is a tasty proposition all year long.

​We love hosting pairing events at Penns Woods Winery (more on that later!), but we want you to know you can experiment at home with great results. We’ve got a few tips and tricks up our sleeve that we’re willing to share, yet we encourage you to try different combinations and see what pleases your palate.

The Basics

Wine and chocolate are great friends for many reasons, not the least of which is because both are fermented. Yes, cacao seeds go through a fermentation process, then are dried and roasted, giving chocolate some of the same characteristics as wine. Chocolate is a complex and intense confection: what happens to it next is the secret sauce that makes this go-to treat creamy, sweet, fruity, acidic and even bitter. There really is a chocolate for everyone.​Wine also teases us with virtually every flavor profile imaginable: mild fruits, sweet honey, bold berries, savory vanilla, even smoke and leather—and so much more. No wonder it’s the perfect partner for multifaceted chocolate.

The Tips

At Penns Woods, we’ve sipped and nibbled our way through our fair share of wine and chocolate—and we’ve learned a few things we’d like to share:

Taste with purpose: take a small sip of wine, then a bite of chocolate. Let the chocolate start to melt in your mouth, and then take another sip of wine.

We highly recommend pairing complementary tastes, so pair wine according to the chocolate’s darkness.

In most cases, choose a red wine, as those varietals stand up to chocolate’s nuanced flavors. Select a softer wine with rounder tannins for lighter chocolates. Pick a bolder, full-bodied wine for darker chocolates.

But feel free to break the rules: some white wines have what it takes to match chocolate sip for bite.

Pro tip: While most chocolate offers sweetness in some way, you don’t have to pair chocolate with only sweet wines. Dark chocolate, in particular, begs for something with bigger tannins and some acidity.

​The Pairings

We’re starting with an unconventional white wine pairing because good milk chocolate tends to be sweet. Our Bancroft Riesling is light-bodied with hints of jasmine and tastes of rich honey and floral with a just-right sweet finish.

Dark chocolate gets a bad rap for bitterness, but that isn’t always the case. The higher the cocoa percentage, the more you’ll find, but some people love that bite. There’s a big range of treats that fall into the dark chocolate category, and all will partner well with our Cabernet Franc Reserve. You’ll smell toasty flavors of blackberry, dark cherry and herbal spice with hints of leather and tobacco. The wine’s firm tannins usher in tastes of red fruit and cranberry with nice acidity.

This killer pairing appeals to both sexes—but guys in particular. For a winning combo, try our silky Bancroft Cabernet Sauvignon, with its soft flavors of raisin, medium finish and a bit of black cherry on the nose. The coffee-chocolate brings out Cab’s rustic and bold tannic finish.

Adding nuts to chocolate creates an umami experience with a crunchy textural bonus. With notes of pomegranate and sage, plus earthy flavors and a spicy black pepper kick at the finish, our Chambourcin is a worthy match.

Think raspberries or other red fruits enrobed in luscious chocolate—sweet on sweet. Our Bancroft Moscato Rose—yes, a rose!—is enhanced by those delicate fruit undertones in the chocolate. It’s smooth and refreshingly sweet with its own flavors of white peach and strawberry.

This faux chocolate (no cocoa!) is still the darling of many candy lovers as it tends to be mildly sweet, not over-the-top sweet. Select our Chardonnay Reserve for its natural bright fruit flavors, touch of nutmeg and hints of toasted nut and vanilla creaminess.

​Come Pair with Us

We hold irresistible pairings at our tasting room throughout the year, including our February wine and chocolate pairings each weekend. If you’d rather savor the flavors with a special someone (or a group of wine and chocolate enthusiasts) in the comfort of your own home, stop by and pick up a flight of Tradestone Confections’ sultry chocolates and just-the-right Penns Woods wines. Our friendly tasting room staff stands ready to assist.

Penns Woods Winery is a family-run Pennsylvania winery. With more than 40 years of experience in the wine business, winemaker Gino Razzi and his daughter, Carley Mack, produce award-winning wines from Pennsylvania-grown grapes. Penns Woods wines can be found in restaurants throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs. Stop in to your local state store and pick from a limited selection of wines, or visit our tasting room for the full offering. The tasting room in Chadds Ford provides an all-around vineyard experience and hosts live music, food and wine pairings and other exciting events each weekend. Score Penns Woods Winery news in your inbox by signing up for our newslettertoday!